And in May 2020, the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS, becoming the first crewed mission to launch from the United States in nearly a decade. SpaceX, which established a new paradigm by developing reusable rockets, has been running regular cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station since 2012. Once those vehicles are built, both companies retain ownership and control of the craft, and NASA can send astronauts into space for a fraction of the cost of a seat on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. Through it, NASA is relying on SpaceX and Boeing to build spacecraft capable of carrying humans into orbit. Today, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is expanding on the agency’s relationship with private companies.
In the United States, commercial companies played a role in the aerospace industry right from the start: Since the 1960s, NASA has relied on private contractors to build spacecraft for every major human spaceflight program, starting with Project Mercury and continuing until the present. Private spaceflight is not a new concept.
This year, SpaceX achieved a major milestone- launching humans to the International Space Station (ISS) from the United States-but additional goalposts are on the star-studded horizon. Now, instead of warring superpowers battling for dominance in orbit, private companies are competing to make space travel easier and more affordable. Analysis of the public-source data for all selections since the beginning of the astronaut program revealed significant age trends over time including a gradual increase in selectee age and decreased tenure at NASA after last flight, with average age at retirement steady over the entire history of the astronaut program at approximately 48 years.Welcome to the 21st-century space race, one that could potentially lead to 10-minute space vacations, orbiting space hotels, and humans on Mars. Applicants younger or older than approximately 40 years were significantly less likely to receive invitations for interviews and were significantly less likely to be selected as an astronaut. The results for the FOIA data revealed a nonlinear relationship between age and receiving an interview, as well as age and selection into the astronaut program, but the most striking observation was the loss of age diversity at each stage of selection. The second used public data on age at selection and age at other career milestones for every astronaut selected from 1959 to 2013 to analyze trends in age over time using ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression and Pearson’s correlation.
AGE OF SPACE SERIES
Using a series of multinomial and logistic regressions, the data were analyzed to uncover whether age of the applicants linearly or nonlinearly affected their likelihood of receiving an invitation, as well as their likelihood of being selected into the astronaut program. The first utilized data requested via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on NASA astronaut applicants for the 20 selection years.
This research was an effort to determine if biases (specifically age) exist in the process and, if so, at which points they might manifest. Abstract NASA’s periodic selection of astronauts is a highly selective process accepting applications from the general population, wherein the mechanics of selection are not made public. “Despite a valid applicant age range typically spanning nearly five decades, selectees over many selections (1959 to 2013) have ended up within a very narrow age range,” the study notes.Īnd apologies to Gen-Xer’s, the findings also imply that there’s a very narrow chance of being accepted to astronaut school if you’ve already passed the average retirement age of 48.Īnother interesting finding within the data: applicants with prior military service had were eight to ten times more likely to be selected than those without. It should be noted that there is no official age cap for applying to be an astronaut. Despite this, the average retirement age has remained close to the same: approximately 48 years old. What’s more, the average age of selectees has been steadily climbing since 1959, reaching an average age of 36.6 years old by 2013. After 40, these favorable odds begin to decline. Kovacs/Mark Shaddenīased on the research, the probability of receiving an interview invitation and the probability of finally being selected into the astronaut program appears to increase as applicants approach their late thirties. It’s tough competition: an illustration of 2009 selection data that was obtained via FOIA request shows how many people actually make it into the space program.
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